>> this is the manage charge of europe's most valuable company and its blockbuster diabetes and obesity drugs ozempic and what gobi -- wegovy.

revolutionizing the weight loss market and generating billions in sales. celebrities have helped their popularity sore. sharon osbourne, chelsea handler and elon musk have all public talked about taking ozempic or will gobi and have had further backing from oprah winfrey. it is a global phenomenon reaching millions on social media apps including tiktok is not without controversy and possible side effects, high prices and the company's lobbying efforts receiving criticism around the world. and in some cases, patients might also need to take the drugs indefinitely to avoid regaining the weight. the chief executive says obesity is a disease, thinks a company will learn from its growing number of patients. >> when i asked the scientists they say it is a treatment. i personal view is that the patients are much different.

on this episode, i traveled to the firm headquarters in copenhagen, denmark. i ask about the global sensation, how he is navigating the company's meteoric rise and the sweeping changes they could bring across a range of industries. francine: thank you so much for being on bloomberg with us. >> thanks for having me. francine: after decades of research, basically you find a molecule that changes everything in terms of weight loss drugs. review taken by surprise at the appetite for these drugs and how mainstream they are? >> i would say there are many surprises when you get a product like that. it starts with surprises in innovation because there are many shots being made, and the winner is often the one that surprises people most.

francine: so when do you think this surprise or success wasn't expected, did it capture something in society that you weren't ready for? lars: many decades of our company was focused on type one diabetes, then because of style changes, perhaps genetics, there was an increase in type two diabetes. for many years type 2 diabetes was not really sure that you need to treat type 2 diabetes to prevent comorbidities. and that increased the same with obesity is not a real disease, not something you can treat, but it's now been established that the underlying causes of obesity , there's a lot of genetics, but also innovations that could actually treat the disease, help

people reduce weight and prevent comorbidities. it is a repeat anyway of what happened with type 2 diabetes and that then suddenly opens the market but turns out to be way bigger than the diabetes market. francine: how difficult is it to have a lifelong treatment and how do you see that changing? lars: we are yet to learn. some will be on lifelong treatment. some will have progressive obesity that will put more and more weight on and they will need more medicine. but there will be some who have been on treatment for some time which almost prevents them and they will have a different trajectory. i don't think we have seen much of this yet. i am no scientist myself, but it is chronic treatment. my personal view is patients are

much different and there will be different avenues, so we will have to build a portfolio of interventions. lifestyle will also play into it for some of them and i think we can help many patients get down to a weight that they can maintain and live the life they want to live. francine:francine: we also heard from some of the food companies, some of the chief executives are having crisis talks. does this mean a wider adoption of these drugs, that people are going to eat or drink 30% less? do you see it changing air societies? lars: i think there will be many changes but with it come opportunities. a different preference for snacking. we will still need to eat, so maybe perhaps a bit less of the unhealthy snacking and a preference for more of the healthy stuff. it's also about following the trend in moving toward where the

market is. you will have a few patients were maybe heavy consumers and i think there will be a relatively bigger impact on some of these companies. but i would say in general i think it is a bit hyped when we see the reactions we see because we are only scratching the surface in the number of patients we are treating. it takes quite some time to scale manufacturing. francine: hollywood has also adopted your weight loss drugs, is that a good or a bad thing? lars: we now have a situation where social media is filled with conversation around our product and that is completely new for us. we are focused on educating physicians.

we cannot do direct consumer advertisement in most countries. it is really important for us to understand which products are approved for type 2 diabetes, which are approved for obesity, and how they should be used. and when we see the data from insurance companies, we can see the profile of those who use our medicines, we can see that they are on average people with a very high bmi, so we feel comfortable about that it is people in need to treat serious abuse situations. francine: you've become such a phenomenon, it is all over social media and some are saying the problem is it could actually lead to more eating disorders. and this is probably because of the increase in social media. what do pharma companies do, can they do anything to balance this? francine: lars: we spent quite

some time understanding what does this mean, and we've come to realize that we cannot control social media. try to be present and get our messaging in, but all of our medicines, it takes a physician writing the script so we focus on the position to make sure they understand what are the mechanisms, for the appropriate patients and then i think we have to also trust that the physicians do what is right for their patient. they are not prescribed for people living with an eating disorder. francine: coming up, i ask about criticism the company has faced over its prices with some predicting it could be worth $150 billion a year.

francine: globally, more than one billion people are thought to be obese. but challenges remain. company patents expire at the end the next decade and rival drugs are already emerging. i asked the chief executive about regulatory pressures and future growth. so how do you think about pricing? you must have gotten some difficult questions from governments but also this goes back to innovation. lars:lars: most products are priced according to the value they bring and i feel really good about the value of our medicines, what they bring to the patient, but also the value for the health care system. we have health care systems around the world that are specifically designed for acute care.

that is linked to chronic care, and we have a portfolio of products that are really addressing some of the chronic diseases of air day and age. diabetes, obesity, and the comorbidities. we know that by 2035, the world obesity federation predicts that the cost to society would be $4 trillion of people living with obesity. and that cost is going to be taken up by health care systems who already struggling today by aging populations. shortage of labor. so what is the value of the medicine we have, and if you invest in that, yes, there is a cost upfront. maybe we can discuss how we deal with that.

value in terms of preventing cost and keeping people out of hospital. francine: but this is a crucial moment because prices will probably go down as you have more competitors coming in. if eli lilly can be a competitor. this is the crucial timer we have to make investment decisions. is that how you view it? lars: the same forecast predicts that there will be a billion people living with obesity in 2035. we are perhaps serving one million or 2 million of those today. then you are right that in most markets when you get more competition and also over time, pricing moves down because you start treating those who accept the higher price point and over

time you have brought access and you get patients pain and low price. since launch in 2018, the price we get after rebates, discounts is 40% lower than when we launched. that's often not mentioned. instead, a list price is mentioned which is not actually what we book in our account after rebate. lars: would you change headquarters to the u.s.? lars: we are controlled by a foundation that is headquartered in denmark. having said that, we have expended a lot globally. we are as much a u.s. company as

a danish company, but the corporate headquarters is based in denmark for the foreseeable future. francine: you think of denmark and you think of novo because of the size of revenues which is i think bigger than gdp, in that uncomfortable? lars: maybe the perspective should be corrected a bit because there's this comparison with the danish gmp and we all know that gdp is an economic flow matrix for the flow on a yearly basis and the market cap is the total. i'm sure if we compared to market cap of everything in denmark we would be tiny. but of course there is also the point that our expansions, more than 30,000 per year in denmark, we are fueling the gdp growth and would take that quite seriously.

the jobs we create i don't think will disappear again. now we are talking about expanding in the u.s.. we will be careful and respectful and how we grow so we can do that in a sustainable way. francine: and that is also increasing supply with new factories. lars: we have made huge investment decisions. these are billion-dollar commitments per year, and it takes for five years to build some of these facilities. we started already years back so we have more and more lines kicking in on an ongoing basis, some of them kicking and in the future. francine: are you also looking for acquisitions? lars: yes, we are. most of the products we have came from our in-house efforts,

which is a bit unusual compared to some of our peers. we expect to carry on with that but we can also see that we can complement that, so typically it would be early-stage biotech where they have great science, we have the infrastructure, disease understanding. we can express that science in a better way than they could do on their own. some of the parts is bigger than what each could do on their own. francine: our farmer come but -- pharma companies having a harder time after code? there seems to have been an explosion of not trusting pharmaceutical companies, vaccines being questioned. have you felt any backlash? lars: yes, and to me that is a really sad situation to be in because had it not been for some of the very innovative small

biotech who came up with vaccines and teaming up with some of the largest forces of our industry to in record time get approval in scaling manufacturing, i think the world will look much different today. i respect that some do not like vaccines for the majority of us had them and that led to a lot of debate about our patents -- are patents really needed? unless we have an ability to patent innovation, there's not going to be any innovation so there would be no new products. so i think that something about the quality, how we distribute products and honestly, i think a lot of the rich countries ended up grabbing products for their own population at the expense of some of the developing countries who did not get access which leads to a debate whether ip is the right way to go, but that

for me is the wrong discussion. we have to figure out how we can show solidarity in a way that we acknowledge that the whole world needs the benefit in a fair way but if you take the incentive away. francine: coming up, his leadership style at the helm of the most valuable company. -- europe's most valuable company. and gutter protection company. leaffilter has over 150 locations and has been installed on over a million homes. we've been protecting homes now for over 20 years. our patented technology offers total protection for your home and comes with a lifetime transferable warranty. the process is simple. give us a call to schedule your free gutter inspection. if you decide to move forward with the project, you put nothing down at all. 833 leaffilter or visit leaffilter.com today.

francine: the market value of nova nord's figure than the dinesh -- danish economy and its philanthropic organization has more than double the assets of the gates foundation. i asked how he handles a company success and his approach to culture. are you enjoying success or does it also bring a lot of responsibility? lars: i took over as ceo at a time when our share price had just been cut by 40%. we were in no growth, no single-digit growth and it is much harder to invest in the business, do the things you want to do compared to today. so i enjoy that. but obviously it also comes with many challenges about how to sustain the success of a company .what kind of leaders

francine: with your employees say you are? lars: i hope they would say that i am a thin tick, i am relatively easy to read. i would also hope they say that i'm curious. i am another specialist -- i'm not a specialist in anything, but i've found that there has not been yet a problem in the company we can solve it we actually mobilized. i'm born with a big nose and big years and i use the attributes of that each and every day to collect opinions from the company. and it is my role to combine it into an opinion together with my team and make sure they made the right choice. francine: does the perfect leader in 2024 need to be a visionary or a problem solver? lars: if i have to solve the

problems that is a problem. for example, when covid-19 arrived, we decided to close down the offices and we all went home. and what you do, you need to establish a crisis response team to deal with that. so the first decision i made was i should not be part of that. i was a bit out of the loop for a couple of days, but i knew if i put myself into that i would become the bottleneck in the company. then i could still be there for everybody and people come to me and i could try to get a view for what our oil company is doing and give some input.

i think the company needs another ceo. francine: have you changed as a ceo? lars: i believe i have. when i was promoted, i took a step up in the team so i went from overnight being a colleague to being leader of the team. they would have liked me maybe a bit quicker to act like the boss , but for me it was not natural to just be bossy after one night. so i think i've been growing into the role and i feel more comfortable today in actually listening to my gut, which is a combination of your own feelings but also your experiences and earlier say what i believe in and that creates clarity. francine: saturday mornings i

understand you have off. lars: saturday is a day where i powered down. i run at a relatively high pace throughout the week, try to wrap things up and saturday is a quiet day for me and i start typically try playing tennis with my wife. go for a swim all year round. after that have a nice lunch and then i'm on to a good trajectory for the weekend and then sunday i try to prepare for the coming week. but through a weekend, i would send either no emails or fair a few emails because i want to drive a culture where i'll get the opportunity to spend the weekend as they fancy. i think what we do is so difficult as it takes so much creative thinking to succeed that if you are always on, always busy, the bandwidth is just too narrow.

generally believe that monday mornings i am a better leader than i am friday afternoon. i ought to take all my vacations -- i am a better leader right after a vacation then i am before a vacation. francine: what is the best and worst piece of advice you've ever received? lars: the best advice would probably be if people if their chance to succeed. and most can actually do much better than they believe themselves and perhaps also you believe based on short-term performance. so trust people and give them what is needed for them to succeed. you will see people succeeding. francine: worst case? lars: the worst piece would be something that was influenced by

politics or spinning facts. i'm hyper allergic to politics when you try to take advantage of precision. i've had one experience during my career where i gave my -- because a close colleague completely trust the impacts. we had just agree how to approach and my colleagues just turn it around. it is so holy for me that if people play tricks, i still stayed. so any advice that is not based on decency. following the facts. francine: thank you so much for

your time today.

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